Tag Archives: reclaimed oak

“Old town” Portland is an area with a lot of history, some of it grand, some of it not so savory. We’re excited to see this area on the up and up. One of the most recent tenants? Our friends at Ankrom Moisan Architects (AMA).

AMA specializes in urban architecture and recently moved their Portland offices to the new 38 Davis Building at the corner of Northwest Davis Street and Northwest Naito Parkway. The firm’s 227 Portland employees now find their work spaces on three floors and 58,000-square feet of the six-story building. The AMA team is aiming for LEED Silver certification at this new location. Within the space is a variety of storied wood bringing different history to the “Old town”.

In the words of AMA, “Through a deliberate combination of raw, honest, and playful elements, our new workplace will better express our thought processes as we work to continually elevate design.” Exposed beams and columns, heavy steel, contemporary furniture and muted colors are joined by reclaimed hardwoods and softwoods throughout the office. The new spaces use these raw and honest elements to celebrate structure and design.

The main conference room immediately piqued our interest with its partially painted table top. (Perhaps our conference table is in need of a new inspired finish…) The AMA conference room incorporates lighter, reflective tones on each surface. American Prairie Painted fit the plan offering brighter surfaces allowing light reflection while highlighting original surfaces acquired from their past life cladding agricultural structures.

Subtle yet powerful punches of color appear throughout AMA in Portland. In meeting areas reminiscent of booth seating Black & Tan 50/50 paneling is accented with opaque orange and blue planks. We’re loving these meeting pods; offering privacy in a more compact footprint is something we could definitely get into for our showroom/office spaces!

Sourced from fences in the southern states, we partially plane each plank. Because no two planks are alike and each has natural variation in thickness, individual boards have a different level of surfacing, resulting in truly random areas of untouched black paint.

The unrestrained design experience will be shared with co-workers and clients alike in a central meeting room. AMA notes the creative process “takes each participant through an array of knowledge, references, emotions, and memories.” Here they’ve incorporated Black & Tan 50/50 at an angle to create a mosaic of wall paneling which spills from the wall onto the ceiling.

AMA crafted a vent by carving into Black & Tan planks. (This reminds us a bit of our ‘raked’ reclaimed wood – more on that in another post.)

A bit further up the coast, the AMA office in Seattle, WA grew quickly from a team of 3 to a group of 100 scattered throughout two buildings and multiple floors. In order to support their culture of collaboration and innovation, in early 2016 the teams relocated to Seattle’s downtown core. Preserving the authenticity of their space, structural elements were left raw and exposed. Reclaimed American Gothic Engineered Ash brings warm tones while remaining understated in the Seattle office.

Focused on community, AMA designed the Seattle studio “to be welcoming to clients, visitors, consultants, and the wider design community as well. The core of the suite serves the public, and includes multiple conference rooms, a great room/lounge, materials library, print room, and model shop.” An open stairway connects the two floors and allows a seamless flow of Reclaimed Ash between levels.

Reclaimed Ash moves up from the floor to a long meeting table within the Seattle AMA office.

Reclaimed wine vat oak was mixed with our Settlers’ Plank grade to create this special flooring.

We follow a “made-to-order” philosophy of production. When you place an order for any of our floors or other products, we will generally mill the material just for you, allowing you flexibility in your specifications. Do you need a specific width that is outside of our typical range? A different thickness or alternate milling profile? What about a custom finish? Your needs dictate the product that we create.

Because of this it’s rare that we have leftovers or material on hand and ready to ship.

This floor is pretty much the reclaimed wood trifecta: a unique and desirable source and story, amazing character and quarter sawn boards, and a prefinish to allow for a fast install process.

Once in a while, through various unusual circumstances, we end up with something in our stock that is ready to go if you need something right away…

This reclaimed Settlers’ Plank Oak floor is truly a gem. The 3” wide planks were salvaged from Oak wine vats here in upstate NY. There is wonderful deep, dark staining from the wine running through many of the boards. There is also a very high percentage of quarter sawn material, with bold, stunning ray fleck running through the pieces. And it’s pre-finished with a rich, warm, three coat tung oil finish (an all botanical product that we buy from a great manufacturer in Vermont – more on that in a later post).

Occasionally we have “extra” square footage from a custom milled floor. 125 sq ft of this mixture of wine vat oak and our Settlers’ Plank grade is ready to go today.

We have 125 sf available to ship right away. Give us a call to talk about the details…

If you follow us on Facebook, then you probably already know that we have a thing for beer. Rochester NY and the Finger Lakes Region are experiencing something of a brewing renaissance and we’ve discovered that when you’re making (or tasting) craft brews, there’s just something about doing it surrounded by reclaimed wood. The rich tones and history the wood offers can be the perfect complement.

Recently I had the pleasure of working with Don Bombace, one of our neighbors here at the Farmington NY location. Don owns a great liquor store across the street (with a HUGE New York State wine selection) but he wanted to try something a little different…

Mixers & More is Don’s latest venture where he sells all of the fun things you need for a party including growlers of great local beers and unique cheeses.

I was excited to have the opportunity to work with Don in selecting interior materials for Mixers & More. We knew we needed a reclaimed wood that was durable and casual. The goal was for the space to be fun and inviting.

A perfect fit, in the all Tan variety, with a pleasant neutral tone and enough knots, fissures, and patina to let you know it has a history. And what an interesting history: think Thoroughbred horses and rolling Kentucky fields.

After getting the flooring in and finished, our next step was the countertops. Our craftsmen created custom solid Oak counters to coordinate with the floors using joists reclaimed from a barn, made specifically to accommodate the unique needs of the serving and sale spaces.

A custom sign, framed with Black & Tan: Tan, tells the story of the reclaimed Oak in Mixers & More.

Reclaimed wood comes in all different shapes and sizes. When it arrives in our yard, our job is to craft something meaningful from those materials. In many cases, we take advantage of the natural patina of age, whether it be a weathered gray or brown, faded old paint, even old stains from wine & vinegar. But other times, the wood is re-sawn, cleaned up, re-milled and used more because of the inherent environmental benefits, with the character from previous use becoming an added visual bonus. Such is the case with these funky fixtures we’re working on in the shop:

Canopy Assembly — Normally twisted wood is a bad thing, but not in this case.

The designers envisioned a flowing, segmented series of strips that would form a graceful and twisting curve. While 3-D models looked pretty cool, once our shop built the prototype, we were able to see just how amazing these would look. Made from reclaimed Oak, this will be an overhead canopy for a kiosk, with a similar concept used on the front panel.

Front Panel — Finished and ready to ship.

The stains, nail holes, and other character marks make an impact for certain, but the design takes the front seat in these truly unique pieces. This kind of collaboration is what sets Pioneer Millworks apart – we speak design, we can understand your vision, and we work to develop solutions to make that vision come to life no matter how twisted it might be.

Stay tuned for some finished photos in the coming months — thanks for checking in.